Average tax refund down 8 percent this year

(AL.com) — The average tax refund is down a little more than 8 percent in the first year under the Trump administration tax plan, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

The average tax refund in the first two weeks of filing season this year is $1,865, compared to last year’s average of $2,035, a drop of 8.4 percent. The number of returns submitted and processed is also down.

By this point in 2018, the IRS had received 18.3 million returns, processing 17.93 million of them. This year, the IRS has received 16.03 million, processing 13.3 million of them.

This year’s tax season is the first under the Republican-led tax plan passed in 2017. The new rules lowered individual tax rates and increased the standard deduction, but also eliminated some popular deductions. Some people have complained of receiving smaller refunds than expected because of changes in paycheck withholdings.

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